Game 793 - Boise State at Tulsa

December 11 at Reynolds Center in Tulsa, OK
espn3.com

Color commentator Bryndon Manzer with a comment of the year nominee in this 69-56 Tulsa win:

"he was slow to be decisive."

!!

* Boise's Roderick Williams: 19 points, 7-of-9 from the field, rest of team: 37 points, 12-of-41

* Bench points: Tulsa 34-10

Games 534-535: Mountain West doubleheader

535 - Nevada at Boise State
February 24 at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, ID
ESPNU

We've had Drew Fellios and Sean Harrington before and they never disappoint.

Drew!

Sean!

"juice are flowing! lot of energy in this building"
"bracketologist"
"joey brackets"
"that's a heat check, and the heat is on!"
"he doesn't have the green light, he has the neon green light"
"quiet assassin"
"Caleb Martin going to dunkland"
"one shot away from really setting Taco Bell Arena ablaze"

534 - Utah State at New Mexico
February 14 at The Pit in Albuquerque, NM
Mountain West Network

Huge performance from long range for Anthony Mathis, who hit 7-of-10 from behind the arc in a 78-63 win for the Lobos.

Both teams came in 7-6 in league play, but Mathis, and a 33-point effort from the bench, allowed the hosts to pull a game ahead of the Aggies.

Sam Merrill was somehow a bit better than Mathis from distance (7-of-8), scoring a career-high 33 points, but Merrill's teammates added just 30 themselves and that ultimately doomed the visitors. Utah State committed 23 turnovers, which didn't help either.

* Each time the broadcast came back from a commercial, a graphic like this one

would appear on screen.

Rebounds, fouls, blocks, steals, assists - fine.

Hustle stats?

I'm sure it meant an accumulation of deflections, charges drawn, things like that. But there was no explanation from the broadcast team about what it meant. So, I'm sorry, Mountain West Network, but you can't just put HUSTLE STATS on the screen, assign a number to each team and not explain what is going on.

Game 320 - Boise State at Nevada

February 22 at Lawlor Events Center in Reno, NV
ESPN

As I planned out my basketball watching for Wednesday, I saw a trio of enticing games tipping at 9:00 pm:

- Butler at Villanova, FSI. The ranked Bulldogs visiting the No. 2 team in the country
- Louisville at North Carolina, ESPN. Two top-10 teams, each looking to win the ACC regular season title
- Oregon at California, ESPN. An excellent Oregon team against Cal, looking for what would be its best win of the season

...and decided to wait until 10:00 pm and watch Boise-Nevada.

I like to see as many teams as possible at this site, so we got the Broncos for just the second time and the Wolfpack for the first. And despite lacking the qualities of the other three games - ranked teams, historic programs - it was an entertaining contest won by Nevada, 85-77.

The trio of Marcus Marshall, Cameron Oliver and Jordan Caroline combined for 68 of the 85 points (80%) & the Wolfpack hit their final 12 free throws (Marshall knocked down the last six to seal it) and went 30-for-34 for the game. Boise State got to within 74-72 with about 2 1/2 minutes to play, but couldn't pull any closer.

With the victory Nevada also tied Colorado State (both are 11-4) atop the Mountain West Conference.

As for the other three games? Well, Butler ended Villanova's 48-game home winning streak, North Carolina may have moved to a No. 1 seed with a huge home win, and Oregon was held to 16-first half points, then erased a 16-point, second-half deficit and won on a Dillon Brooks three with two seconds left.

Those all seem like better choices, don't they? BUT - without Boise-Nevada, I never would've heard

"They say offense sells tickets, defense wins games...but rebounding wins championships."

from commentator Richie Schueler!

Games 274-275: Tuesday night doubleheader

275 - Boise State at Colorado State
January 31 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, CO
ESPN

274 - Creighton at Butler
January 31 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN
FS1